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  • Catharsis Factor: This is a common reaction among readers to certain events in several of the books:
    • After chapters of witnessing Gen's gradual slide into depression after losing his hand in The Queen of Attolia, he suddenly comes roaring back into the action by blowing up the Sounisian navy in it's own harbor and stealing the Magus, twisting the knife as he does so by pointing out that the Magus had previously suggested that he stop sulking and do something productive. Much praise has been given to Turner for how well she timed his return to form, giving the reader just enough angst for them to really feel the weight of what he'd gone through, but taking care to put a stop to it before it got to be too much.
    • After Gen spent the first two thirds of The King of Attolia being bullied by his own attendants and being seen as a blundering buffoon by everyone else, he destroys the entire farce in a single scene, utterly cowing his attendants and single-handedly taking down the greatest threat to his throne from his sick bed. Every character present is left dumbstruck and wondering how on earth they'd managed to forget that the king they'd all considered inept was also the same Thief of Eddis who had once kidnapped their own queen from under their very noses, which is exactly what readers had been wondering throughout the entire book.
    • Thick as Thieves was finally released in 2017 after a seven year wait, the longest gap in the series. It featured the long awaited return of fan favorite Costis, who was at last depicted as being in his element and no longer the resident Butt-Monkey, and it was also a bit of a Breather Episode, with less emphasis on political intrigue and returning more to the road trip elements from the first book and focusing on the growing friendship between the two main characters.
  • Fan Nickname: Nahuserfish.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Helen (the Queen of Eddis) and the Magus of Sounis, for some fans. Some fans are still happily shipping Helen/Sophos however, encouraged by the latter's mysterious disappearance. The latter one becomes canon in book four.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: It hasn't gone so far as to become a Broken Base, but there's a clear split between the fans who think The Queen of Attolia is one of, if not, the best books in the series, and fans who like to pretend it doesn't exist because of the...unusual nature of the romance between Eugenides and Attolia.
  • Genius Bonus:
    • In The Thief, when Gen and the Magus talk about the old gods, Gen makes a disparaging remark about the "new" gods; which is a pretty accurate description of the gods of Greek mythology. Specifically Zeus and Hera.
    • The stories of Immakuk and Ennikar in Thick as Thieves. The characters themselves are the universe's own version of Gilgamesh and Enkidu (though not exact parallels). The style of writing is much different than the myths told in previous books; Kamet tells them as poems which emphasize through repetition, just as Gilgamesh does, and they allude to the unknown portions of Gilgamesh when Kamet explains that some of the tablets have been lost, leaving modern playwrights to either skip or make up those bits.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • The early scenes in The Queen of Attolia where Gen is tortured and maimed are much more horrifying to read after the revelations at the end of the book.
    • Eugenides glibly nicknaming Sophos "Useless the Younger" becomes this after we get a book from his point of view and learn that that is exactly the sort of dismissal he's been dealing with his entire life.
    • Costis' joke about the king's heir becomes this after Irene's miscarriage in Thick as Thieves.
  • Ho Yay: Costis and Kamet a practically swimming in it during Thick as Thieves. The fact that they essentially sail off into the sunset together at the end of the book only fueled things. In Return of the Thief, Attolia correctly points out that Nahuseresh's taunts about having caught Kamet and tortured him to death can't be true, because he didn't mention Costis and Costis would have died before allowing Kamet to be hurt, and it turns out they spent the whole Peninsula-Mede war holed up in a shepherd's cottage together.
    • Teleus and Relius are extremely close in King of Attolia, and in Return of the Thief it is revealed that they're lovers, although evidently not monogamous.
  • Magnificent Bitch: Irene, also known as Attolia, appears to be a shy, dim girl, which hides her calculating mind. Following her brother's death in a suspicious accident, she is married off to a contemptuous noble, only to dispatch him on their wedding day via clever use of poison. Using her jewelry to buy the support of soldiers and mercenaries, when Irene's barons attempt to choose a husband for her, she has him summarily killed in front of them, announcing she will rule in her own right and choose her own way. Ruthlessly ruling her own domain, she plays the ambassador Nahuseresh, allowing him to think he controls her while setting him up to his defeat, even arranging for the fall of his army to strengthen her own position.
  • Memetic Badass: Eugenides. He's already plenty badass in canon, but the fans take his awesomeness to the nth degree.
  • Moment of Awesome: It's pretty much agreed on by the fans that everything Gen does qualifies for this. He eats Awesome Flakes for breakfast... in your rafters. He's not the only one. "Diplomacy, in my own name." Face it, where this Crazy is Cool, Bunny-Ears Lawyer thief goes, awesome immediately follows.
  • Rewatch Bonus: Everything in the early parts The Thief the first time you reread it, from Gen's behavior towards the magus to the simple act of glancing at a display of earrings.
  • The Woobie:
    • Sophos.
    • Gen can hardly go five pages in the first two books without falling over from something or other, and even without that he undeniably becomes this in book two.

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